My management calendar

Fairly quickly, I settled into a routine of setting objectives and discussing how they were progressing with the team. For most of my management career, I managed fairly large, diverse teams with multiple project responsibilities. As a new manager, I soon learned that you need to know what each of your staff is working on and whether they are delivering on their commitments or not. In order to do this, I established a regular pattern of activity with my teams that I used for many years and which I still refer to now when I'm training new managers. This is the structure that I wrapped around my nocturnal nemesis:

Once per day

Speak to each of your staff, a mixture of work and social conversations. You'd be surprised how many managers don't do this even when they are in the office.

Once per week

Spend about 45 minutes with each of your staff (or as small project teams if appropriate) reviewing what they have done over the last week and what they need to accomplish over the...